Monday, June 20, 2016

This weekend, our turtles, and the heat

Oh my goodness, it is HOT in Arizona!

♥

Welcome to summer in the desert. Our air conditioner ran constantly all weekend, and yesterday's high in the "Valley of the Sun" was 118°F (47°C). I will try super hard to not dwell on our crazy heat over the course of this summer here on my blog, but this weekend was brutal in terms of weather. The silver lining is that the sun is shining and our skies are a really pretty blue.

For the past several months I have been asking Doug to install drip lines in our turtle pen. Now that summer is upon us, we really needed to make that happen. I had such a cute plan in my head, and Doug moved forward without me and...well...bless his little heart...what he did wasn't really the same as what I had in my head. {I know, I know. Poor Doug.} This weekend seemed like a really good time for me to learn how to hook up drip lines and bury them right where I wanted them, according to the plan in my head. So the photo above is Casper, walking under a drip line before I did my digging.

But first, there was this:

Friday and Saturday I attended hospice volunteer training at Hospice of the Valley. I was in a class of about 25 new volunteers and we learned about boundaries and ethics and that we are not allowed, under any circumstances, never ever ever to administer medication. So, I'm pretty sure I won't be dealing with medication.

This building is just east of Mercy Gilbert Hospital, and this corn field is just east of the parking lot:

I stepped outside during one of our breaks to warm up. Ha! The air conditioning in that building was so cold that I wore a sweater both days, and had to go outside to thaw out. Anyway, I thought it was cool to see a lush field of corn still amidst growing urban construction.

Carrie and her crew came over Saturday night and brought dinner for Doug's Father's Day celebration. She made a yummy batch of spaghetti and meatballs, and spent some time playing pool with Doug. Oh, and she also brought a pan of brownies that we topped with vanilla ice cream and sprinkles. I love the relationship that she has with Doug, and he loved being celebrated as her father figure. ♥

So, back to the turtle pen. Over the past week Whiskers has decided to be a meowing alarm clock at 4:30 a.m. which is extremely annoying, but to my benefit yesterday. I really needed to be outside at sunrise in order to get my time in before it got ridiculously hot outside.

I'll admit to being fairly grumpy at the beginning. Why didn't Doug just wait for me before installing those drip lines? Whyyyyy... And why did he choose yesterday morning to meet his brother at the archery range to shoot their bows? Whyyyyy... Well. As it turned out, it was good for me to learn how to put those little connectors on the drip lines. And since the turtle pen is my realm, it was good for me to dig and bury the lines and know exactly where they are for my ongoing future reference. And since my Taurus spirit craves all things earthly, it was really good for me to dig in the dirt and put things right where I'd pictured them in my head.

Plus, it was fun that my little Casper turtle was really curious about what was going on in her habitat. I had to be very mindful where I stepped because she was out and about checking out what was going on as I dug and buried and moved things around. Rexy stayed hidden while I played, and I've already see him out this morning, cruising around the perimeter assessing the changes.

I planted more dichondra grass seed (see the green in the photo above?), and I also threw in a couple of sunflower seeds to see if they'll sprout. Time will tell. The little red marbles will eventually disappear under the thick grass that's to come, but I love the way they look for now.

Doug arrived home at 8:30 with breakfast sandwiches from Starbucks, just as I was finishing up with my work in the dirt. I was in much better spirits when he came home than I was before he left. :o)

I spent the remainder of the super hot day inside, taking care of laundry and drawing mandalas. I was on a mandala roll this weekend! I created four pieces that I was able to photograph to use for promoting my upcoming mandala workshop in August. Whiskers, the meowing alarm clock, was close at hand.

This week holds more extreme heat outside, with me remaining calm, cool, and collected on the inside. Eh-hm. Gosh, the heat can cause some interesting irritability and random unreasonableness. Sounds like a job for my yoga mat...

10 comments:

I too like the red marbles, at first I thought it was to mark the drip lines. Good for you for figuring out how to put together & dig in - it does feel good to get those things done by our own hand. Oh I hear you about heat & humidity although we are not quite in that range. I am glad that your volunteer training has started on such a positive for you. Yeah for fur alarm clocks - I have two. Oh more mandalas to see.

Well, no wonder you think 90° sounds delightful! With our humidity it seems pretty uncomfortable to us, but we're sitting on the patio as I type this with a stiff breeze that's bringing a break in the temperature tomorrow. Good luck with the hospice training; volunteers are so badly needed.

Hi Deb! I LOVE that you are doing the volunteer work at the Hospice!!! I've always had such admiration for hospice workers. What meaningful, important and awe-inspiring work. I look forward to hearing more about your experience as you go forward. Maybe that's in my future one day too?!?!? And I just adore all the "improvements" to the turtle habitat. I couldn't stop smiling reading about their curiosity. I just love those two! As for the heat, well, I'm sure I'd be divorced and abandoned by all those who love me. I can deal with many things in life, but heat is not one of them! I hope it cools off, even just a tad bit, very soon! Hope your week is going well, my friend! XOXOXO!

What an amazingly generous thing for you to do - volunteering at a hospice. I can't imagine what it's like to live somewhere where there is such a brutal heat - and how funny that you had to wear a jumper to compensate for the air conditioning!That garden is coming along beautifully - what lucky turtles they are.

I totally understand grumpiness due to the heat! It's so hot and humid here that it takes your breath away as soon as you step outside. At least you do have your yoga to regain the calm! Me, I float in the pool!

I've been watching your heat reports on the news this last week. I hope relief is coming. I am impressed that you are motivated enough to get up and out that early. Pearl's extremely loud meows come at random times in the night @@ I'm excited that your journey with hospice has started, you are going to be such a blessing!